New World War II Eagle Strikes the Sky

On June 1944, 6, that is, the day when the U.S. military successfully cut off the Cotentin Peninsula, making Cherbourg completely an isolated city, the storm season finally arrived.A strong wind of magnitude 19 roared across the strait, setting off waves several meters high.This is an out-and-out disaster for ships operating in the strait.

Jim was originally a sailor on a shrimp fishing boat in Florida. After the war began, he entered the navy and became a sailor on a tank landing ship. Early on the morning of the 19th, the navy had already received a warning of strong winds.Therefore, all the ships that were going to return to the UK to transport more supplies were suspended, as was the tank landing ship that Jim was on.All the ships stopped and anchored in sheltered places as much as possible. Of course, there were not many such places, and there were not even many places that were really suitable for anchoring.Therefore, some ships that are not very important can only be parked in more dangerous open seas.

The tank landing ship that Jim is on is unfortunately among the less important ones.In order to avoid danger, all the personnel on the tank landing ship left the ship and boarded the land.As for the poor ship, it was left to fate.

In the morning, the wind became stronger, the waves on the sea became bigger and bigger, and more and more white foam began to appear on the top of the waves.Jim stayed in a bunker left by the Germans, which looked out across the channel.He saw that the boat he was in was swaying constantly in the wind and waves.If it hadn't been for the anchor chain to hold it tightly, it would not know where it would have drifted.

However, as the wind and waves increased, the situation of the boat became more and more troublesome. After a big wave passed, Jim saw that the boat seemed to move backwards for a while.

"It's not good, it's breaking anchor!" Jim couldn't help crying out.

The so-called anchor walking means that the holding force of the anchor is not enough. When the sum of the wind current and other external forces on the ship is greater than the holding force produced by the anchor and the anchor chain, the anchor will move on the seabed, and the anchor of the ship can no longer fix the ship. , the position of the ship will also move accordingly, and the ship will drift with the wind current and move in the sea.The seabed conditions near Normandy are not particularly suitable for anchoring, so it is not surprising that such a phenomenon occurs.

Ship anchoring often leads to major accidents such as ship running aground and colliding with other ships.But now, in the leeward direction of that boat, there are several boats, and if it is not good, there will be a collision accident.But now there is no one on board at all, so it is impossible to make any remedial measures.Everything is left to fate.

The speed of the boat gradually increased. At this time, maybe the iron anchor caught something on the bottom of the sea. The boat stopped suddenly, and the bow sank toward the sea. The big waves rushed directly to the bow.

"Oops, the anchor chain is going to break!" Beside Jim, another sailor Romney made such a judgment.

As he expected, the bow of the ship was lifted up suddenly, the entire bow was almost completely out of the sea, revealing the red anti-rust coating, and the stern was deeply submerged in the sea water.Then the boat drifted along the wind direction, and the speed was getting faster and faster.

"It's about to hit!" Jim almost didn't dare to watch.

As he expected, the butt of the tank landing ship hit the bow of a transport ship hard, and then the two ships drifted down the wind together.

"The stern is flooded! You can see that the hull is leaning a little."

"It's hopeless!"

"Damn it, those boats are heading towards Mulberry A!"

The "Mulberry" artificial port is the most critical thing in the entire Normandy area, and most of the various materials needed by the landing force are sent ashore through it.

"The structure of the Mulberry A artificial port is very strong, so it should be fine," said one person.

"I hope so. I dare say that there is absolutely no problem when a ship like this usually hits it. You have never seen how big those caissons are, and how thick the steel structure under those floating piers is! But today, such wind and waves . . . God bless America."

The two boats slammed into the floating pier of Mulberry A artificial port one after another, the pier shook for a while, and then scattered away.Those steel boxes floating on the water crashed towards the nearby pier again...

……

Later that day, Ron received such an order.This order requires the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing to temporarily suspend its attacks in the direction of Cherbourg, and transfer all strike forces to attack the road system from Germany to France.

"Why did you come to such an order suddenly?" Ron felt very strange. Isn't the Eighth Air Force busy with this job now?So continue to look down.In the briefing sent with the order, he learned some of these things again.

During the storm, the artificial harbor of Mulberry was badly damaged.The floating dock disintegrated, the caissons broke, and the cross-shaped steel parts collided with each other and were seriously damaged.It's almost like being destroyed.The Mulberry B artificial port on the British side escaped the difficulty because of its better sea-based structure, with little loss, but its short-term handling capacity has to be compromised.

On the landing beach, the Allied Forces had 7 tank landing ships, 1 large personnel landing ship, 1 oil tanker, 3 barges, 7 fishing trawlers, and 67 landing craft were sunk by strong winds. Some ships were damaged by the collision, and some ships were injured because the turbulent wind and waves detonated the hydraulic mines laid by the German army.The violent storm also threw nearly 1 ships on land.Judging from the current situation, the unloading work may have to stop for at least 1 to 800 days.

Seeing this, Ron immediately understood the dangerous situation of the Allied forces.All supplies of the landing force were nearly cut off.If at this time, the Germans launch a counterattack again, it is really difficult to say whether the Allied forces that have lost their supplies still have the strength to withstand the German attack, or how much they will pay to withstand such an attack.

"Fortunately, the Germans' military forces in the vicinity have also suffered heavy losses. I'm afraid they don't have the strength to launch a large-scale attack." Ron thought this way, feeling a little fortunate.But he immediately saw such information again.

Based on aerial reconnaissance and other intelligence, the German army transferred from Hungary the 9th and 10th Panzer Divisions of the SS, which had just been withdrawn from the Soviet battlefield and were reorganized, and were preparing to use them on the Normandy battlefield.

To be honest, these two armored divisions are still incomparable with ace units such as the Banner Guard, Empire, Skull, and Viking of the SS.But you must know that there is really nothing too bad in the top 10 divisions of the Waffen-SS.Without this storm, Ron would not be worried about what these two armored divisions could do. With the overwhelming material strength of the Allies, let alone just two second-rate SS armored divisions.Last time, the Allied forces had withstood the attacks of the Imperial Division and the Banner Guard Division, but now, after so many days, more troops have landed on the European continent, and the scope of the beachhead is constantly expanding. Skeletons and Vikings have all been transferred, and the Allies are confident that they can withstand it.

But it's really hard to say now. After losing the port, if the Allied forces lacking supplies are attacked by enemy armored forces, the result may be quite tragic.

Now Ron immediately understood the meaning of the order, which is to use air superiority to prevent the enemy from transporting troops to Normandy through the road system. This is the top priority now.

After silently reading all the information, Ron said to Scott: "Scott, you go and prepare, and notify all officers above the squadron to hold an emergency meeting."

"Okay, General!" Scott saluted him and walked out.

……

From this day on, in the northern part of the Normandy peninsula, you can hardly see the Allied combat aircraft that were always visible before.The advancing speed of the US ground forces also slowed down significantly.Over the roads and rail lines from Germany to France, however, the number of combat aircraft increased dramatically.

The bombers of the Eighth Air Force bombed almost all the roads, railways, and bridges that could be seen, but to be honest, their heavy bombers were not generally inefficient when attacking point targets such as bridges. .For example, on a railway bridge west of Paris, the b-17s failed to blow it up five or six times.And bridges, whether they are road bridges or railway bridges, once destroyed, will be repaired much slower than other targets. Obviously, to achieve the goal of delaying the Germans, attacking bridges is the most effective means.

In order to carry out the blockade mission, the 21st Attack Aircraft Wing got more attack aircraft, first of all, the AC-47 attack aircraft.The pilots needed for this kind of aircraft can directly call the transport pilots of other troops, and there are many candidates for gunners and the like in the Eighth Air Force.On the second day after Ron received the order to block the road, another six modified AC-6s were sent to the 47st Attack Aircraft Wing.Their presence made it almost impossible for the Germans to move during the day.

But at night, the weakness of the AC-47 is very obvious.This aircraft has no self-defense capability.This problem is not obvious during the day, because the German fighters have long been beaten stupidly.But at night, the problem came. The German night fighters were still quite active. If something like the ac-47 encounters a German night fighter, it is really a dead end.Also, they don't have the ability to attack accurately and destroy bridges.However, the arrival of another batch of aircraft has changed this situation.This aircraft is the PA-47 attack aircraft modified from the P-47.

Although this kind of aircraft is not an authentic dive bomber, it also has the ability to dive and drop bombs at a large angle after modification. On June 6, the first batch of 22 pa-6s were handed over to Ron together with the pilot.